


The Consequences of War

by Palizinha



Series: PnF SW [3]
Category: Phineas and Ferb, Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars
Genre: Background Phinabella, Family Feels, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29664522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Palizinha/pseuds/Palizinha
Summary: The New Republic starts getting Empire prisoners out.Isabella's mother was an Empire prisoner.Isabella isn't quite sure how to handle that.
Relationships: Isabella Garcia-Shapiro & Vivian Garcia-Shapiro
Series: PnF SW [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2129688
Comments: 1
Kudos: 9





	The Consequences of War

Isabella didn’t let herself hope.

Sure, she remembered her mother had been arrested by the Empire, all those years ago.

Remembered being hidden in a small spot in their house she hadn’t even known existed until her mother had snuck her in there.

But the Empire… so many of its prisoners were quietly killed.

Isabella had decided, when she first began smuggling, that she wouldn’t ask about her mother, even when people who worked for the Empire owed her favors. She doubted her mother was alive, but she had feared having confirmation that she was dead.

So, when the New Republic first began freeing innocent Empire prisoners, Isabella didn’t look up the list of people freed.

That had been a conversation she had with Phineas.

“You know,” Phineas said one day, one of her first visits to Tatooine following him moving back home with his siblings. “I heard the New Republic has been looking for information on Empire prisoners, to see which ones they need to free.”

“I heard that too,” Isabella said, short and quickly. She had known where he was going.

“Your mother…” Phineas hesitated, even though he was the one who had brought it up in the first place. Isabella hadn’t talked about her mom with him often, but he knew enough.

“Is dead,” Isabella said. “Has to be. She spoke out against the Empire. They… they would have killed her.”

“You don’t know that,” Phineas said. “If we look into it, maybe…”

“I can’t,” Isabella said, and she hated how her voice sounded when she talked just then. “I can’t… if she’s dead, I’ve accepted it a long time ago. If she’s not… that means I let my mom stay in prison for a decade when I could have saved her.”

“You were a child,” Phineas said, as gently as he could, and Isabella closed her eyes.

She was thankful for Phineas, she was, but she had spent the past decade doing her best to avoid thinking about her mother.

“Plenty of Empire officials owed me favors. I could have done something.”

“You were a child,” Phineas repeated. And this time Isabella let his reassurance fill her over anything else. Because it was true, wasn’t it?

“Look it up for me,” Isabella requested. “Vivian Garcia-Shapiro. I don’t know if I’ve told you her name before.”

“You hadn’t,” Phineas said, and then nodded. “I’ll tell you when I find out.”

After that, she had done her best not to think about it. The longer it took for Phineas to say anything, the most she thought he had learned her mother was truly dead and just was having trouble breaking the news to Isabella.

...but Phineas had promised to tell her when he had news. And Phineas kept his promises.

...but Phineas was also very nice, and could be having trouble finding the right words.

....but.

That was the issue with hoping. Even when she told herself she wasn’t hoping. Her mind kept going in circles, thinking about a woman she had placed in a box inside her mind from the moment she took her first trip offworld, completely alone.

Even when Isabella thought about it - about what would happen if her mother was alive - she didn’t know how to feel about it

Isabella didn’t resent her mother. Not really. She had stood up for what she thought was right, like she had taught Isabella to. If she had stayed quiet while the Empire destroyed her friends’ homes, after it took away her husband, that would have been worse.

But… Phineas was right, too. Isabella had been a child.

A child who had hid and listened while the Empire took her mother away.

What did it say, that Vivian Garcia-Shapiro had chosen to speak out against the Empire, knowing how it would likely end, when she had a child to look after? When Isabella had already lost her father?

The memories of being inside a ship with her mother, learning how they worked almost before she could walk, were something special though. They proved that there had been more in her mother’s mind than being against the Empire. It showed that she had cared.

Isabella was tired of… thinking about it. Whether she was hoping for the best or not, she truly had no idea how the best would feel like.

“I talked to Baljeet,” Phineas said one day, and Isabella knew what it was about even before he kept going. “He’s working with the New Republic now, and I asked him to look up your mother’s name. It took him a while to get back at me because he wanted to be sure, so he wouldn’t give you the wrong information.”

“And?” Isabella asked, her heart doing… something. She could barely hear anything over the sound of it.

“Vivian Garcia-Shapiro is being questioned on her arrest, but is otherwise unharmed,” Phineas said. “Baljeet… Baljeet thinks he can get her freed soon, especially once Chancellor Mothma knows she’s your mom.”

Isabella felt like she should have had more of a reaction. But she just froze.

Phineas looked at her for a long moment, before moving forward and taking her hand. “You don’t have to see her, if you don’t want to.”

That made Isabella be able to move again. “No, I want to.” Did she say that too quickly?

“Alright,” Phineas nodded. “If you can’t pilot the ship, I’ll do it for you. I can get you at the planet she’s in as soon as Baljeet gives the go-ahead.”

“Can I stay here until then?” Isabella asked. She hadn’t spent long on Phineas’s house in Tatooine, too crowded now that all the Flynn-Fletcher children were there at once for the first time. But she didn’t think she could just keep working while waiting for news.

“Of course,” Phineas said without hesitation.

Isabella hugged Phineas, needing the physical contact. “My mom’s alive.”

“She is,” Phineas said, hugging her back the way she had needed him to.

Isabella had both looked forward to and dreaded Baljeet’s message.

They had been waiting for it, for her mother to be freed from prison, and everyone in Phineas’s family had done their best to make her feel at home.

And Isabella had a hard time waiting. What were a few more days or weeks after years of separation? Apparently a lot.

“Baljeet sent a message,” Ferb said. Isabella looked at him from where she had been sitting next to Candace, and Candace instantly moved her hand to grab Isabella’s.

“Good luck,” Candace said, looking very honest. Candace knew what reuniting with family after a long time was like, didn’t she.

“Thank you.”

Ferb went to grab Phineas, and before Isabella knew it they were inside the Centennial Chihuahua, going to the world Baljeet was in waiting for them. Vivian Garcia-Shapiro with him.

“It’s going to go great,” Phineas said. “I’ve always wanted to meet your mother.”

Isabella smiled from her spot at the side of the ship. She wasn’t one to let others pilot her ship for her, but Phineas was an exception even in normal circumstances. If anything, having Phineas with her when she saw her mother would make things better. He always made everything better.

“She’ll like you,” Isabella said. She liked him, and she didn’t like many things. If her mother hadn’t changed much, she would very much like Isabella’s favorite farmboy.

“I hope so,” Phineas said, looking a bit nervous at the idea of meeting Isabella’s mom, which made Isabella smile once again. Only Phineas, huh?

Baljeet was waiting for them. “Long time no see, Isabella, Phineas.”

“Hey, Baljeet,” Phineas said, hugging him briefly.

“What’s up,” Isabella said, not actually wanting to know. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Baljeet - most of the time - but…

If Baljeet was bothered, he didn’t show it. “Vivian has technically not been freed yet, but she can receive visitors now. The only thing we’re waiting for is you vouching that it’s really her, and that the Empire didn’t do any tricks. Then you can take her with you to… whatever she’s going to live now. Do you still have your childhood home?”

“I own it,” Isabella said. She hadn’t been there in a long time, though. Even thinking about it brought memories of crying, hidden, trying to keep quiet, while her mother was taken away.

“I like her,” Baljeet said. “Seems nice enough. You two look a lot alike.”

“I remember.”

“Right,” Baljeet laughed a little, looking like he finally realized she wasn’t really interested in talking. Not that she usually was either.

“Isabella and her mother look a lot alike?” Phineas asked, filling the silence.

“You can see for yourself,” Baljeet said, stopping in front of a room. It opened, and Vivian Garcia-Shapiro was sitting inside.

Isabella couldn’t breathe for a moment. She looked older, but… it was her. A part of Isabella hadn’t fully accepted that she was going to see her mother again until she did.

“Isa?” Vivian said, and Isabella didn’t even think before running into the room, but stopped short from actually touching her.

“Hey,” Isabella said, and then tried to think of what to say next? What did you say when you saw your mother for the first time in a decade? “I… I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Vivian asked. “For what?”

“I didn’t… save you. I should have,” Isabella said. Ever since she learned her mother was alive, she thought back on all the times she could have asked the Rebellion for help breaking her mom out of prison, but hadn’t.

“If anything I’m the one who should apologize,” Vivian said, her hand coming up to touch Isabella’s cheek but not touching her, like she wanted to let Isabella decide whether that was something she wanted.

It was, so Isabella moved into her mother’s hand.

“You were doing what you thought was right. The Empire… the Empire’s too blame,” Isabella said.

“Yes, the Empire,” Vivian said. “Not you.”

Phineas hadn’t come in, and Isabella backed away to invite him into the room. She wasn’t sure she could do this without him.

“Mom, this is my… my Phineas,” Isabella said. He was her boyfriend, of course, but he was more than that. He was the first person Isabella had let in in a long time, the only reason she was strong enough for this reunion in the first place.

“Yes,” Phineas said, a small smile on his face but his posture straight, like he wanted to make a good first impression. “I’m her Phineas.”

“I’m glad you have someone looking out for you,” Vivian said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to do it.”

“You’re here now,” Isabella finally decided.

Maybe her mother should have been there for her, protected her, once, but the Empire was the true culprit there.

They had lost ten years.

But they were here now, and the Empire was gone.

They had time.

“I am,” Vivian said. “I promise. As long as you want me around… I’ll be with you.”

Any doubts on Isabella’s mind went away, and she finally hugged her mom.

Phineas put a hand on her shoulder, and Isabella could barely believe it.

She had spent a long time alone, thinking she was never going to care about people again because she’d seen how much it hurt.

But she had her Phineas. His family too, even.

And she had her mom, against everything she had ever thought would happen.

Everything else would come with time.


End file.
